The Witch-cult in Western Europe: A Study in AnthropologyMurray, Margaret Alice
Religion
The Witch-cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology
Murray, Margaret Alice
Ethnology; Witchcraft -- Great Britain
Boguet (1589) is more exact, as he obtained his knowledge at first hand:
'Les Sorciers estans assemblez en leur Synagogue adorent premierement
Satan ... ils luy offrent des chandelles, & le baisent aux parties
honteuses de derriere. Quelquefois encor il tient vne image noire,
qu'il faut baiser aux Sorciers.... Les Sorciers en second lieu
dansent.... Les danses finies, les Sorciers viennent à s'accoupler....
Les Sorciers, apres s'estre veautrez parmy les plaisirs immondes de la
chair, banquettent & se festoient.... Les Sorciers rendent conte à
Satan de ce qu'ils ont fait dés la derniere assemblée.... Il fait
renoncer de nouueau à ces miserables, Dieu, Chresme, & Baptesme. Il
leur fait rafraischir le serment solennel qu'ils ont fait.'[466]
The English account is put together from foreign sources to a great extent:
'They are carryed out of the house, either by the Window, Door, or
Chimney, mounted on their Imps.... Thus brought to the designed place,
they find a great number of others arrived there by the same means:
who, before Lucifer takes his place in his throne as King, do make
their accustomed homage, Adoring, and Proclaiming him their Lord, and
rendring him all Honour. This Solemnity being finished, they sit to
Table where no delicate meats are wanting.... At the sound of many
pleasant Instruments the table is taken away, and the pleasant consort
invites them to a Ball.... At the last, the lights are put out. The
Incubus's in the shapes of proper men satisfy the desires of the
Witches, and the Succubus's serve for whores to the Wizards. At last
before Aurora brings back the day, each one mounts on his spirit, and
so returns to his respective dwelling place.... Sometimes at their
solemn assemblies, the Devil commands, that each tell what wickedness
he hath committed.... When the assembly is ready to break up, and the
Devil to dispatch them, he publisheth this law with a loud voice,
_Revenge your selves or else you shall dye_, then each one kissing the
Posteriors of the Devil returns upon their aiery Vehicles to their
habitations.'[467]
2. _Homage_
In some places the witches saluted their Chief by falling on their knees,
and also by certain manual gestures; in other places by curtsies and
obeisances. In Scotland, France, and Belgium, another rite was also in
vogue, that of kissing the Devil on any part of his person that he might
direct. At Como and Brescia the witches, 'when they paid reverence to the
presiding demon, bent themselves backwards, lifting a foot in the air
forwards.'[468]
Remigius, writing of the Lorraine witches in 1589, says:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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